This copy is for your personal non-commercial use only. To order presentation-ready copies of Toronto Star content for distribution to colleagues, clients or customers, or inquire about permissions/licensing, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com

With the scale of the disaster in the Philippines coming into focus, prayers and plans to help resonated through Toronto’s Filipino community on Sunday.

At Our Lady of the Assumption Catholic Parish, what began as a typical Sunday mass quickly turned personal for Rev. Ben Ebcas, Jr.

“The typhoon struck my home province along with my city. We lost our house and I’m still missing two of my brothers,” Ebcas told his parishioners.

“We pray for strength and faith in the midst of this crisis.”

Officials now fear that Typhoon Haiyan may have killed as many as 10,000 people in one Philippine province alone. It is being called one of the most powerful storms ever recorded.

Article Continued Below

With winds of 235 km/h, gusting to 275 km/h, the typhoon flattened everything in its path, and caused extensive flooding and landslides. Thousands of people are still missing.

As members of the congregation wiped tears from their eyes, Ebcas described a news report about seniors and children taking refuge in a local school. They believed they would be safe from the typhoon.

“They were wrong,” Ebcas said. “The water from the sea rose more than 20 feet and flooded the school. Imagine the rush of water going into the school and in the classrooms.”

The storm brought down electricity and telephone lines, leaving many in the Toronto community unable to get in touch with family members and friends.

Josephine Herrera knows that her sisters are safe, but she’s not sure about their families.

“They can’t contact them so we don’t know,” Herrera said, adding she has seen pictures of her devastated hometown online. “It’s so sad. I saw my school, my church, it’s all ripped by the typhoon. I cried but I have to be strong. I have to pray for my family and friends.”

Ottawa has pledged up to $5 million for humanitarian aid and will match all donations by Canadians to registered charities helping in the Philippines. The Ontario government said Sunday it is ready to offer assistance, though it did not give details.

A four-person rapid response Global Medic crew left Toronto for the Philippines on Sunday, taking with it water purification units and other supplies.

Spokesman Andrew Budziak said the team is going to the devastated central islands with little heads-up knowledge of the scene they’ll find on the ground. “It’s so hard, even for people in the Philippines, to get an idea of what's going on,” he said.

“We’re hearing reports of mass graves. But there are still areas in the country that nobody's been able to reach.”

Jessie Thomson, director of CARE Canada’s humanitarian assistance and emergency team, said his organization plans to provide immediate essentials like shelter, water and food to communities that have lost everything.

Filipino community groups across the GTA have already started collecting donations for typhoon relief and planning fundraising events.

The Kapisanan Philippine Centre for Arts and Culture is organizing a musical performance to raise money and plans to set up an online donation drive. It’s still in the early stages, said executive director Caroline Mangosing, but so many people have been asking for ways to help that the group wanted to get going right away.

“It’s just people on our Facebook networks and Twitter and just private messaging me (saying), ‘How can we help?’ ” she said. “Even a lot of non-Filipinos in our network are wanting to get involved.”

Mangosing’s father has relatives on Panay island, which wasn’t the worst hit but is still under a state of emergency, and he hasn’t been able to reach them yet, she said.

“All of us are just kind of sitting around watching all of the news footage coming in, and it’s just devastating,” she said. “I’ve been sitting around watching my laptop all day and just crying.”

The Filipino Centre Toronto held an emergency board meeting Sunday night. The centre plans to set up a bank account Monday morning for donations, and it wants to work with non-governmental organizations and clergy in the Philippines to deliver aid directly to the people who need it, said Rosalinda Cerrudo-Javier, the group’s president.

Divina Batara, president of the Filipino Social Club of Oakville, said food and money will be delivered through Christ for Life Ministries in Mississauga, and they’re aiming to get it there as soon as possible.

“People are starving, people are dying. You can’t wait,” she said.

Batara’s brother-in-law had a friend killed in Palawan province, and one of her distant relatives in the area is still missing. She and her family were there visiting relatives last year.

Our Lady of the Assumption has launched a massive appeal for financial aid, as well as for canned food and dry goods. Financial donations for typhoon victims will be counted right away and sent to Catholic bishops in the affected areas, the church said.

“What we need is quick response. Financial assistance will be the No. 1 way of helping people,” Ebcas told reporters outside the church.

“I know how it is on the ground,” said Ebcas, who assisted in the aftermath of another deadly typhoon years ago in the Philippines. “The impact is unimaginable. There is a limit to what human beings can bear.”

More from the Toronto Star & Partners

LOADING

Copyright owned or licensed by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or distribution of this content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Toronto Star Newspapers Limited and/or its licensors. To order copies of Toronto Star articles, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com